Typical construction techniques for the making of snowman involve the forming of large, spherical masses of snow. These snow spheres are used to form the lower and middle parts of the snowman body with a smaller sphere formed for the head. To build a snowman of roughly human size takes considerable time and requires the lifting of at least one fairly heavy sphere on to the upper surface of a base sphere. Such an effort may be to strenuous for the small children usually interested in snowmen, thus requiring adult assistance. The present invention addresses this problem and also provides additional benefits.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,264,531, issued to Asperas, discloses a building component for facilitating the construction of snow boulders that can be used for making snow men or women. The construction component is snow spheres with an adhesive surface that can be provided as a single piece or constructed from components like hemispheres that can be assembled to form a sphere. The adhesive surface can have holes, nodules, bumpers, impressions or dimples that grip and hold snow as the sphere is being rolled on a snow surface. The resulting boulder that is formed by rolling the sphere in the snow is lighter than a solid snow boulder and it lasts longer as the weather warms. The spheres may be made out of plastic, graphite or other composite, fiberglass, aluminum or any other metal. An alternate embodiment is a blow-up beach ball or balloon that provides for easier stocking, shipping and storing when not in use. The boulder applies snow clumps to the adhesive surface and then rolls the snow sphere to create a large snow boulder that is lighter in weight than the normal snow boulder. A snow sphere with adhesion surface can be made of lightweight material but can have support and strength supplied by Styrofoam, graphite or other lightweight materials. The lightweight materials may either fill the interior or be arranged to leave spaces such as in a baffled, corrugated, or matrix arrangement.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,000,887, issued to Mulhern is directed to a snow sphere for making various objects out of snow and particularly for forming into the appearance of a typical snowman. The snow sphere is comprised of an elongate flat sheet of flexible material having slots cut out along its length and tabs cut out or affixed at one end. The flat sheet is preferably easily rolled up and stored when not in use. It can be made of plastics such as vinyl, polyethylene, and natural rubber as well as synthetic elastomers. In use the tabs are engaged into a selected group of slots forming the desired diameter. Snow is shoveled or otherwise placed into the snow sphere. Once filled, the sphere can be released by simply pulling out the tabs from the slots. For the typical snowman, three diameters are constructed with the largest at the base and the smallest at the top for the head.
U.S. Pat. No. D384,960, issued to Kistler illustrates an ornamental design for a snow sphere. The design is shown as three circular spheres with the largest used for the base, the smallest for the head and the middle for the upper body. The spheres are barrel shaped and split in two with the two halves possibly hinged together and held closed by a pair of latches. The center sphere is shown with three short cylindrical members fastened to the inside wall of the sphere apparently providing a place for buttons to be installed after the sphere is removed.
U.S. Pat. No. D375,964, issued to Poubouridis discloses an ornamental design for a snowman sphere. The design is shown as three separate spheres that can be set one on top of the other. Each sphere is split into two halves and hinged together with a means to keep the halves together and aligned when closed. The first sphere base is the largest and the smallest is for the head.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,059,279, issued to Rossi is directed to a multi-sectional interlocked snow sphere. The sphere includes a bottom section, intermediate section and a top section. The three spheres are in the form of a truncated spheroid with the two smaller ones having sections provided with a downwardly depending annular stud flange adapted to engage the top opening of the section below it. Each sphere is subdivided along vertical joints into halves that are hemispheroidal. The halves are provided with a suitable vertical edge-to-edge inter-engaging means which are rapidly attached or detached from each other. Opposite the edge-to-edge inter-engaging means are snap fasteners. The sphere sections can be made with sheet metal but preferably they are made from a synthetic plastic material as by sphering or forming from sheets.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,661,838, issued to Chen discloses decorative lighting for outdoors that can include a cover shown as a snowman's head that is illuminated by placing it over the top of a pole that has one or more LEDs.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,604,391, issued to Cheng is directed to an outdoor decorative light system that includes a plurality of bulb assemblies and attendant wiring and a support member. Typically the decorative light system can provide decoration for gifts, candy canes, Santa Claus, snowman, reindeer, Christmas trees, north pole, elf, manger, cross, ornament, sled, holly, bells, stockings, star, candles, sack of gifts, wreath, mistletoe, and the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,822,106 to Bonet Sirera describes an apparatus for sphering tubular members of fibrous cement, which comprises a two part sphere including a foraminous casing and an expansible core structure; means rotatably supporting at least one of said sphere parts, and means for expanding and contracting said core to compress and express moisture from the cement and then release the compressed cement, said core structure including a flexible sleeve surrounding a foraminous core having longitudinal external ribs.
United States Patent Application Publication 20110277310 to Washburn describes a simple and easy to make snowman with a limited amount of snow. The system does not require the lifting of heavy snow balls, typically used in the making of a snowman, and provides for small children to be able to handle the snow without adult help. Further, this invention provides a quick and affective decorating system which can be reused and positioned securely anywhere on the figure.
United States Patent Application Publication 20100068967 to Hume describes an apparatus including at least three 3-dimensional shapes, a first one of the 3-dimensional shapes being rotatably supported within a second one of the 3-dimensional shapes, the second one of the 3-dimensional shapes being rotatably supported within a third one of the 3-dimensional shapes, at least one of the 3-dimensional shapes including an opening capable of connecting at least one of the shapes to another one of the shapes.
United States Patent Application Publication 20080094839 to Pan describes a patterned ornament having lighting figures, which includes a transparent shell and inner lighting means. The inner surface of the ornament is provided with specific inclined or curved planes to reflect light ray to form specific virtual image shown on the ornament. The patterned ornament thus obtains beautiful outlook and increases decorative effect.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a snowman making device and method that will allow large snowmen to be constructed quickly and easily. It is a further objective to provide such a device that will provide a snowman of traditional appearance that is light in weight and easily movable. It is a still further objective of the invention to provide a snowman making device and method of construction that can be safely and easily used by young children. It is yet a further objective to provide such a device that can be easily cleaned, maintained and stored. Finally, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a snowman making device that is durable, inexpensive and simple to use.
While some of the objectives of the present invention are disclosed in the prior art, none of the inventions found include all of the requirements identified. Development of a snow man making device which can be assembled quickly and easily without requiring great height or strength represents a great improvement in the field of recreation and satisfies a long felt need of parents and children.